When Life Throws You A Curve

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• There are times in life when all is going well, we are cruising down the highway of life at breakneck speed then all the sudden sometimes out of nowhere life throws us a curve.

• What do we do? We sometimes negotiate the curve and others times we crash and burn.

• When hit the curve what do we do? Many times we cry out for help because we feel an impending sense of doom.

• Other times we seem to spend life of the curve trying to keep our lives on the road.

• Today we are going to look in the book of Judges Chapters 6 and 7.

• In these two chapters you will gain some insights to some things that you need to know when life throws you a curve.

• Here is the set up.

• The nation of Israel was in the throes of oppression, this time at the hands of the Midianites. The nation had enjoyed close to 40 years’ worth of prosperity and peace after Jabin had delivered them from the last oppression.

• Near the end of the 40 years, the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now they were in the middle of 7 years of oppression at the hands of the Midianites.

• Each year during the harvest according to Judges 6:3-6, the Midian’s along with their allies would sweep into Israel and take all the grain and livestock they could take, thus ruining the harvest for the nation.

• It was so bad that people were hiding in the caves, in the mountains and other hidden strong holds. Judges 6:2

• The nation was at a low point and they felt abandoned by God and they did not know what to do. Have you ever felt that way? They were so absorbed by the problem that the people could not see what to do in order to fix it.

• Verses 6-7 tell us the nation cried out to God for help, much longer on this curve would cause them all to crash.

• Today we will examine some truths we should embrace when life throws us a curve.

• SLIDE #2

When life throws you a curve you need to understand…

SERMON

I. GOD knows the root of the PROBLEM- 6:1-10

• How many times do we find ourselves in a situation where we really do not see what got us unto the situation, or maybe down deep we knew why things were happening but we did not want to admit it?

• The nation had to know why they were in the throes of oppression; it is not like it had never happened before.

• Nevertheless the people were distraught. Verse six told us that the nation was at a low point.

• It has amazed me in my own life how many times I would be in the middle of something while not really wanting to acknowledge the real root issue. How many times has this happened with money?

• When I worked in the factory, I used to think that I needed to make more money. I thought more money would take care of the financial issues I was facing.

• It never occurred to me (really I did not want to admit) that my lack of discipline was the reason for any money issues we had at the time.

• The nation cried out to God. What did God do? He came in and immediately pushed the oppressors out of the county! WRONG.

• SLIDE #3

• Judges 6:8–10 (HCSB) 8 the LORD sent a prophet to them. He said to them, “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I brought you out of Egypt and out of the place of slavery. 9 I delivered you from the power of Egypt and the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you: I am Yahweh your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites whose land you live in. But you did not obey Me.’ ”

• God gave them an answer in a strange way.

• I do not know about you, but if I need to get rid of these oppressors wouldn’t you rather have God send an army or have God go Promised Land on the Midians?

• But instead God sent an unnamed prophet to let the nation know WHY they were having the problems they were facing.

• God did not give the people what they wanted, but instead what they needed. They needed to know why the oppression was happening

• In order to fix a problem, we need to know what the real problem is. If I thought my money problems resulted from a lack of money instead of a lack of discipline, as soon as I would get more money, I would just face more problems until I took care of the real issue.